


The Stuff of Legend

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-12 07:56:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3349532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They've always been doers of the impossible, improbable, and just plain unlikely. So how, exactly, do the Flynn-Fletcher boys handle something so entirely mundane as starting college?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. these days of summer

**Author's Note:**

> "Act Your Age" put me in such a creative mood, I've been writing all week.  
> I have another (non-AYA-compliant) P&F fic on the go at the moment as well, but that's currently with my on-and-off beta Mags being edited to high heaven.  
> It's been... a while since I wrote anything for Phineas and Ferb. But P&F makes me happy, so here I am. 
> 
> This chapter is actually a prologue, of sorts, taking us through a few major events senior year and the aftermath of AYA, before the next chapter moves into the story proper.

Once upon a time, there were two boys who could do incredible things.

They built amazing structures, created fantastic technology, bent the laws of physics. It really didn’t seem like a big deal at the time; nothing seems impossible to a 10-year-old.

They were seventeen now, and high school left a lot less time for the impossible.

The improbable, however… well, they could still make some time for that.

“Hey, Phineas!” someone called as he walked out the school building’s front door with Buford and Baljeet.

Phineas turned, and saw Vanessa Doofenshmirtz standing in the parking lot. She waved.

“Hey, Vanessa,” he said, breaking away from the others to greet her. “I thought you weren’t back ‘till next week!”

Vanessa shrugged. “I came back early.”

“Ferb has chess club today,” Phineas said. “He won’t be done ‘till four-thirty.”

“That’s okay,” said Vanessa. “I’m actually here to talk to you. Do you have any plans this afternoon?”

“Nope!” Phineas replied. “I’m all yours.”

“Great,” said Vanessa. “We can go for coffee.”

“Oh, I’m not – I don’t drink coffee,” said Phineas, scratching his ear. “But I could go for a hot chocolate.”

“You don’t drink coffee?” Vanessa asked, raising her eyebrows. “Aren’t you, like, the god of morning people?”

Phineas snorted. “Firstly, I don’t know if somebody who relies on coffee technically counts as a ‘morning person’ –“

“Touché.”

“- but no, actually; I’m about 80% non-functional before breakfast,” Phineas finished.

“But you’re not a coffee drinker?” Vanessa asked again.

Phineas shuddered. “No. We learned that lesson when we were fifteen. There are still scorch marks on our ceiling.”

Vanessa laughed. “Hot chocolate it is. Are you ready to go, or -?”

“Yeah,” said Phineas. “Just got to say good-bye to the guys.” He spun around and waved to Buford and Baljeet. “’Bye, guys!”

Buford and Baljeet looked a little confused, but waved back. “See ya later, Phineas!”

“Okay,” Phineas said, turning back to Vanessa. “I’m good.”

They climbed into Vanessa’s car, and she drove without conscious thought to her favourite coffee shop. Phineas was fairly quiet; he didn’t know why Vanessa wanted to talk to him yet, and he was still processing the school day ( _honestly, do we really need to have another dance?)_.

He didn’t realise just how silent he’d been until they sat down, drinks in hand, and Vanessa said, “You’re quiet today.”

“I don’t know why we’re here, yet,” Phineas pointed out.

“Good point,” said Vanessa. “See, I’ve known you for almost eight years, but we’ve never once had an actual conversation that didn’t involve Ferb.”

Phineas frowned, thinking back. “To be fair, he is the reason we know each other.”

“Well, yeah, but you’re probably the most important person in his life,” Vanessa said. “And – well – I don’t know how long this thing with me and Ferb is going to last, but I _do_ know that it hasn’t got a chance in hell if I’m not friends with you, too. I mean, if all goes well we’ll be seeing an awful lot of each other, so –“

“You want to be on good terms. Makes sense,” Phineas finished.

“I want to be friends,” Vanessa corrected. “If we can.”

Phineas grinned. “I can be friends with _anybody_. So.” He paused, casting around for a good topic. “How’s school?”

“Great,” Vanessa replied. “I mean, my advisor told me that I’m missing a math requirement, so I’m stuck doing that next semester, but otherwise things are awesome.”

“Well that’s good,” said Phineas. “What kind of math?”

“Algebra.”

“Ooh, I love alg– but it sure looks like you don’t,” Phineas observed.

Vanessa laughed. “No, I don’t. But I’m good at it, so it should be an easy pass.”

“Small victories, yeah?”

“Exactly,” said Vanessa. “So, you’re a senior now. You looking at schools?”

“Yeah,” Phineas said, making a face. “Kind of? But not as much as schools are looking at _me_.”

\--

“Thanks for the ride, Vanessa!”

Ferb looked up from his Latin homework, surprised. He’d thought Phineas was with Baljeet and Buford, or perhaps Isabella.

Also, as far as Ferb knew, the only Vanessa they knew was still out of town.

He stood up, abandoning his homework, and went downstairs to investigate. At the bottom of the stairs, he found Phineas shedding his jacket and backpack.

“Oh, hey Ferb!” Phineas greeted brightly, as was his way. “How was chess club?”

Ferb shrugged. Chess club was never _amazing_ , but it was something to do, and a social group besides the one they’d had since they were children.

“Yeah, I bet,” replied Phineas. “Hey, guess who I ran into after school!”

Ferb raised his eyebrows and nodded fractionally toward the door. Phineas was not, generally speaking, a quiet person.

“Oh, you heard me,” Phineas said. “Well, Vanessa’s back in town. She said she was gonna text you, by the way, so keep an eye out.”

“I hadn’t realised that you two were in touch,” said Ferb.

“Oh, we weren’t,” replied Phineas, absentmindedly digging through his backpack. “She kidnapped me after school.”

Ferb raised his eyebrows again.

“Well, no, not exactly,” Phineas conceded. “But we went out for coffee.” Ferb’s alarm must have shown on his face, or perhaps Phineas just expected his response, because Phineas immediately corrected, “No, no, not coffee! I had hot chocolate, I swear. No more midnight flame throwers.”

Ferb snickered. “Why, though?”

“I thought you didn’t _want_ any more midnight flame throwers,” Phineas said.

Ferb rolled his eyes.

“You meant the other thing,” Phineas realised. “Oh, we were bonding.”

Ferb frowned, confused.

“See, Vanessa figures that if you and she are going to last, she and I ought to be friends, too,” Phineas explained. He dropped his backpack and put his hand on Ferb’s shoulder. “I like her, Ferb. She’s a keeper.”

Ferb smiled. “I’m glad you’re getting along. And a wee bit terrified.”

“Oh, you should be, bro,” said Phineas. “You should be.”

\--

Let it be known that Phineas Flynn was neither inobservant nor uncomprehending of romantic love; it just wasn’t really where his head was most of the time.

(He was going to spend the rest of his life attempting to convince people of this, but he hadn’t the faintest idea of that yet.)

A prime example of this came the spring of their senior year of high school, at the height of prom invite season.

“Are you asking anybody, Phineas?” Millie asked, and suddenly he had the eyes of all of the former Fireside Girls on him.

 _Darn_. And he’d been doing such a great job of being ignored in their prom chatter.

“Uh, no,” Phineas answered, shrugging. “Prom’s not really a good event for going solo, either; I was thinking of sk-“

“No!” the girls interrupted in unison.

“Phineas,” Katie said _way_ too seriously, “you can’t just _skip_ prom.”

“Ferb is!” Phineas protested, looking to his brother for assistance. Ferb, the traitor, just smirked and shook his head.

“Ferb is going on a date with his college-age girlfriend,” Gretchen pointed out. “ _You_ are just ditching.”

“You could go with one of us!” Adyson suggested. “As friends, of course. We know how you are about dating.”

“I mean, it’s a little late to ask _most_ of us,” Ginger pointed out. “I’ve already asked Baljeet, and almost everybody else has dates already, but I bet Isabella would go with you!”

Phineas winced, just the teeny tiniest bit. He was pretty sure he’d make a fool of himself if he tried to go to _prom_ of all things with Isabella just as friends.

And anyway, he’d caught Buford’s much more noticeable flinch at Ginger’s words.

“No, guys, really,” Phineas insisted. “I don’t want to go. Bella will have more fun if she goes with somebody else.”

And then he made a tactical retreat to the library.

He caught Buford after school about a week before prom, having steadfastly avoided the girls’ attempts to platonically set him up with his best friend from across the street.

“Hey, Buford, you’re skipping prom, too, right?”

Buford shrugged. “Yeah, why?”

“Wanna come over and play video games instead?” Phineas suggested.

“Sure, why not?”

And so while most of their friends were off dancing and eating in an entirely too loud room, while Ferb and Vanessa had a lovely fancy dinner, Phineas and Buford sat in the Flynn-Fletcher living room and played video games until the wee hours of the night, pointedly not talking about the event (and people) they were avoiding.

It wasn’t that bad a night, all things considered.

\--

“You guys are the worst matchmakers _ever_ ,” Phineas announced to the yard at large one afternoon in late August.

Their friends exchanged looks and shrugged. Ferb rolled his eyes.

“Seriously, if even one of you had _ever_ said _anything_ , we’d have been together, like, two years ago,” Phineas continued. He flopped onto the grass next to his brother. “Why _don’t_ we ever talk about feelings, again?”

Ferb shrugged.

“Just saying, it could’ve saved us a lot of trouble.”

“Phineas, I have been pushing you in Isabella’s direction since we were ten,” Ferb said, elbowing him. “It’s hardly my fault that romance is outside of your considerable ream of expertise.”

“Ferb, the last time I asked Isabella to a dance, she asked if _you_ were coming, too,” Phineas pointed out.

“It wasn’t unprecedented.”

“Yeah, well, it was a bit discouraging, is all.”

Ferb frowned. “You aren’t easily discouraged.”

“I wasn’t willing to try too hard and risk screwing everything up,” Phineas admitted. “I’d rather have her as a friend than scare her away.”

“She felt much the same way, if I remember correctly,” mused Ferb. “Another point in favour of full disclosure, I suppose.”

“Yeah.”

\--

“Hey, Baljeet?”

“Yes?”

“Why _don’t_ we ever talk about our feelings? Phin’s got a point; it would save us a lot of trouble.”

“Perhaps we are subconsciously afraid of showing the required vulnerability.”

“Or of rejection?”

“An equally likely hypothesis.”

They both fell silent, looking at the ground.

Neither spoke for the rest of their walk home.

\--

“ – can you believe we almost missed each other?” Phineas was telling their ceiling. “Like, what if nobody had said anything, and I’d gone to Danville U instead?”

Ferb didn’t say anything.

Phineas rolled over to face Ferb, who was reading on the other bed. “Dude. Are you even listening?”

“Always,” Ferb said absently. “Paying attention, however…”

“ _Ferb_.”

“Do you want my honest opinion, Phineas?” Ferb asked, setting his book down and turning to face his brother.

Phineas shrugged. “Well, yeah. That’s why I asked.”

“You and Bella would have worked things out eventually, no matter what school you’d chosen,” Ferb said. “And your unending wondering what _could have_ happened is starting to wear on me.” He sighed. “It doesn’t _matter_ , Phineas.”

“It doesn’t –“

“No!” Ferb interrupted uncharacteristically forcefully. “It _doesn’t_. Because you now have the entire year to work things out, which would’ve been true regardless of what school you’d settled on.” He paused, briefly, but Phineas didn’t interrupt. “Meanwhile you and _I_ are less than two weeks from being separated by an entire ocean for _months_ for the first time since we were toddlers. Forgive me for having worries _not_ related to your relationship status!”

He fell silent, slumping back against his pillow.

“Ferb, are you – are you _scared_?” Phineas said softly.

Ferb shrugged.

Phineas rolled off of his bed and climbed onto Ferb’s, sitting cross-legged at his brother’s feet. “You could’ve told me.”

“I’ve never had to before,” Ferb pointed out.

“I have been a bit distracted, haven’t I?”

Ferb rolled his eyes.

“Y’know, I’m nervous, too,” Phineas admitted. “But we’ll be fine. We’ve got almost all the kinks worked out on the new teleporter –“

Ferb chuckled.

“- and we’ll talk all the time, and ‘Nessa and I won’t try to take over the world until you’re back in the country for Christmas, I _promise_.”

Ferb’s eyes widened.

“I’m kidding,” Phineas reassured him, patting his leg. “Well, mostly.”

Ferb sat up, frowning.

“Yeah, I know you didn’t,” said Phineas sympathetically.

“I _am_ glad you and Isabella have finally come around,” Ferb said.

“I know.”

Phineas patted Ferb’s leg again. “Dude, college should be afraid of _us_. We’re Phineas and Ferb! Doers of the impossible, improbable, and just plain unlikely!”

“The stuff of legend,” Ferb agreed.

“Yeah!”


	2. a million miles away

Phineas and Ferb were set to move to school on the same day.

This meant that neither could accompany the other for move-in, and that each only had one parent along as well.

The night before Ferb and Mom’s flight to England, the boys built a fort and camped out in the space between their beds. They talked about anything and everything except the fact that starting tomorrow they’d be living across an entire ocean from each other.

(Teleporter or no teleporter, cell phones or no cell phones, the distance still weighed on their minds, nearly insurmountable.)

They were close together, their knees touching and their faces just a few inches apart, having dozed off midway through a whispered conversation. Phineas’s head was pillowed on his left arm, while his right hand rested just touching Ferb’s on the floor between their torsos.

Perry woke them that morning by climbing over them, sitting between them, and chattering very loudly.

“M’up, m’up,” Phineas mumbled.

Ferb, who himself wasn’t anywhere near properly awake yet, swung his left arm around and let his hand land on his brother’s face. “No, you’re not. Go back to sleep.”

“M’not an alarm clock, Ferb,” said Phineas, rolling onto his back. He was more awake than he usually was at this hour, because as soon as he’d opened his eyes, the full weight of _this day_ had hit him like a tonne of bricks.

“Shhhh.”

“ _Feeerb,_ ” Phineas groaned. “We have to _go_.”

“No.”

“Y’r flight’s at eleven.”

“Tomorrow.”

“I think it _is_ tomorrow.”

Ferb blinked slowly a few times. He rolled away from Phineas. “Is it too late to tell you you should come with me?”

“Little bit, bro,” Phineas laughed.

Ferb made a little sound at the back of his throat.

“Yeah,” said Phineas. “I’m gonna miss you, too.”

\--

“So, Buford, are you all settled in your dorm?”

“Yeah. All moved in,” Buford replied around a bite of his sandwich.

“Have you met your roommate yet?” asked Baljeet.

Buford set down his sandwich, looking haunted. “Yeah. Y’know how you’re always saying _I’m_ pretentious?”

“Of course,” replied Baljeet, eyebrows raised.

“Well his name is, like, Lloyd or something,” said Buford. “I’m not really sure, because our entire conversation was about some obscure artist that he idolises.”

“That sounds unpleasant.”

“You don’t know the half of it. I pity the poor kids in Animation who have to deal with him.”

Baljeet reached across the table and patted Buford’s hand. “Consider it an exercise in patience.”

“Whatever,” Buford said, picking up his sandwich again. “Just don’t be surprised if I show up at your place because I’m contemplating murder.”

\--

“Hey, Phineas!”

Phineas gave Isabella a quick hug. “Hey, Bella.”

“What’cha doin’?” she asked, and then they both dissolved into self-conscious giggles.

When they’d composed themselves, Phineas replied, “Well, I was going to ask you on a date.”

Isabella blushed. “That sounds like a perfectly lovely way to spend the afternoon.”

“You’re going to have to pick where, though, because I have no idea where anything is around here,” said Phineas.

“You’ll learn,” Isabella said. “You’ve always been good at that. But for now, I’m sure I can think of a place.”

“I hate to interrupt,” Lawrence said as he joined them, “but if everything’s set up, I’ll be leaving now.”

“Oh, okay,” said Phineas. “Thanks for coming, Dad.”

“’Bye, Lawrence,” Isabella said, waving.

Phineas gave his dad a quick hug. “’Bye.”

They watched him walk away, waving good-bye.

“Didn’t your mom come, too?” Isabella asked.

“She’s with Ferb,” Phineas replied, fiddling with his phone in his pocket. “C’mon, let’s go get lunch.”

They walked hand in hand to Isabella’s new favourite restaurant, chatting about their schedules and what Isabella had been up to around campus for the last two weeks.

“- Do you know what you want to major in?” Isabella asked.

Phineas set down his fork. “Isabella. I didn’t know what _school_ I wanted to go to until two weeks ago.”

“Fair point,” conceded Isabella. “You don’t have to decide right away, anyway. Not if you don’t want to.”

Phineas shrugged. “I’m thinking about physics. As a major, I mean, not just in general. But maybe not; I mean, I’d like to do something with art.”

Isabella took a bite of her mac and cheese, thinking. “Well, it’s not a major on its own, but there’s a ‘physics of musical instruments’ class in the science department.”

“Really? That sounds way cool!”

“I thought you’d say that. It’s pretty popular, though, so be sure to sign up quick when it’s time to pick classes for second semester.”

“Wicked.”

\--

It took Ferb a few weeks to feel properly settled at school. It was strange to be this far from everyone – from his parents and his friends and his _brother_ – and it took a while for Ferb to stop thinking of himself in the plural.

Now that was something he’d never quite realised he did until he stopped. He’d never _not_ thought of himself as a separate person from his brother, but even in high school they’d always done more together than apart. And what they _did_ do apart (Ferb hardly brought Phineas along on dates with Vanessa, for instance), Ferb still didn’t usually do alone. He was a social creature by nature.

He found a rhythm soon enough, though. He was nothing if not adaptable.

His roommate, Justin, was very nice and didn’t make too many question faces when Ferb explained that _yes_ he was born in the UK, but _no_ , he didn’t grow up here.

But while he was a little off-balance for a while, Ferb didn’t really feel homesick at all until the day that one of his physics classmates caught him after class.

“Hey, weren’t you in the news a few times when we were younger?”

Ferb idly scratched his elbow. “Er, yeah. My brother, Phineas, and I did a lot of projects when we were kids, some of them got attention in the media.”

“Wait, hold up – you’re _that_ Ferb Fletcher?” Another guy asked, stopping in his tracks. “Phineas-and-Ferb Ferb Fletcher?”

Ferb shrugged.

“I’ve never heard of Phineas and Ferb,” the guy’s friend said.

“Well, they’re American. Or I thought they were,” the first girl said. “But Ferb’s, like, an engineering prodigy. What are you doing in this class, man?”

Ferb shrugged again. He pulled his bag onto his shoulder. It took some doing, but he escaped to his room before long.

“Are you okay?” Justin asked, looking genuinely concerned.

Ferb waved him off and dug out his phone.

_[To: Phineas, Isabella, Baljeet, Buford]_

_Hey guys. I know what we’re doing over Christmas Break._


	3. we all will be together

“Have you slept at all?”

Buford blinked a few times. “Since…?”

“You tell me!” exclaimed Baljeet, poking Buford as he started to nod off again.

“Well, I had to scrap my final and start over last Thursday –“

“Buford, that was six days ago,” Baljeet said concernedly.

“It was due this morning,” replied Buford, shrugging.

Baljeet frowned. “You have at least been _eating_ , I hope?”

“Yeah, ‘course,” said Buford. “Iz sent a care package right before finals; said she missed stuffing food into all of us.”

“I received a similar gift,” Baljeet replied, chuckling. “But I am serious, Buford, you need to sleep!”

“I can’t sleep _now_ ,” Buford pointed out. He had a point; they were in a mall, doing their holiday shopping.

Baljeet crossed his arms. “Neither of us has found _anything_ for _anyone_. We are leaving.”

To prove his point, he grabbed Buford by the wrist and dragged him away from the display of fancy scarves they’d been eyeing for Irving. He only let go when they reached the door to the outside world, so that he could pull on his hat and mittens and remind Buford to do the same.

They walked to Baljeet’s apartment, which wasn’t unreasonably far away, and by the time they arrived Buford was falling asleep on his feet. Baljeet steered him toward the bedroom after he’d dropped his coat onto the arm of the couch.

“Take off your shoes before you fall asleep,” Baljeet instructed.

Buford kicked his boots off, narrowly missing a precarious pile of books next to the bed. “I’m not gonna fall –“ he yawned, “asleep, ‘Jeet.”

“Sure you aren’t,” replied Baljeet. He patted Buford’s shoulder. “I have some papers to grade; I’ll be in the next room when you wake up.”

\--

“ _Hey, Bella, when’s your last final?”_ Phineas asked in lieu of a proper greeting.

“Hello to you, too, Phineas,” replied Isabella, holding her phone between her shoulder and her cheek so that she could keep working on Ferb’s Christmas present. “I’m finished at noon on Thursday. Why?”

“ _D’you wanna drive back to town together?”_ replied Phineas. “ _We’ll have to book it, I’ve got a lunch date with ‘Nessa at 1:30, but it’s more fun than travelling alone.”_

“Sure, okay,” Isabella said. “We can pack the car ahead of time.”

“ _Perfect! Okay, I’ve got to run, I have class. See you soon!”_

Isabella laughed. “’Bye, Phineas.”

\--

Phineas spent Friday morning with Buford – it had originally been planned as a guys day out, but Irving had work, Baljeet had last minute grading to do, and Ferb’s flight was delayed. Phineas was cool with that, though; they had a month to spend all together.

“So how is dating Bella treating you, Phin?”

“Great,” said Phineas, grinning goofily. “Really great. We had a lot to sort out at first, but we’ve finally gotten into the swing of things.”

“Good,” Buford replied. “I’m happy for ya.”

“How’s your whole –?” Phineas waved vaguely. Buford knew what he meant, though; he’d always been good at context clues.

Buford shrugged. “It’s been worse. I haven’t had much time to worry about it, honestly.”

“That’s… good?”

Buford shrugged again.

Downstairs, someone opened the front door, crashed around a bit, then closed it again. Phineas seized this opportunity to change the subject. Talk of romance always ended in weighty, awkward silences with Buford nowadays. “Let’s go see who’s here.”

“Sure,” Buford agreed, looking relieved at the change of subject.

They’d only just reached the top of the stairs when Phineas recognised the new arrival.

“Ferb!”

The taller boy had only a moment’s warning before Phineas barrelled into him, but experience (and how scrawny Phineas was) allowed him to catch his brother and stay upright.

“Hello, Phineas,” Ferb said, or maybe he just hugged back really tightly and Phineas got the message (like he always did).

“I thought you weren’t gonna get back until, like, 2am!” Phineas mumbled into Ferb’s shoulder.

“I may have lied about the plane delay,” Ferb replied, smiling audibly. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“Consider me surprised,” said Phineas.

“Hey, I’m gonna run,” Buford said from halfway up the stairs. “Have fun catchin’ up, guys. I’ll see you at the party.”

“Later, Buford,” Phineas replied, waving. Ferb waved, too.

They camped out on the floor between their beds again, setting up a tent and restocking their secret food stash. They’d seen each other in person a few times since August, had talked as often as possible on phones and video chat, but it wasn’t the same.

“Do you have all of your Christmas presents?”

Ferb shrugged.

“Yeah, me neither,” replied Phineas, leaning back against the side of his bed. “We should go shopping tomorrow.” He nudged Ferb’s knee with his foot. “I already got yours, so don’t you worry about spoiling the surprise.”

Ferb chuckled. “Likewise.”

“Cool! Do you have anything for Bell yet, because I am _stumped_ ,” Phineas said.

Ferb cracked up. The message was clear – _you’re on your own on this one, Phin._

\--

“Ferb!”

Isabella and Phineas really were meant for each other, Ferb mused as he caught the girl who’d just flown at him just as Phineas had a few days previously. “Hello, Isabella.”

“How’ve you been?” Isabella asked when she’d released him, taking a step back.

“I’ve been well,” Ferb replied, because Isabella had never quite been able to read his mind like Phineas could. “It’s been strange to be so far from all of you, but I’ve managed.”

Isabella smiled. “That’s good. I’m glad to hear it. How long’s your winter break?”

“Just four weeks,” said Ferb. “I know you and Phineas have six.”

“Buford and Baljeet go back around the same time as you do,” said Isabella. She pulled her hair over her shoulder. “Phineas is going to be climbing the walls.”

Ferb chuckled. “We’ll leave him a nice project to tinker with, don’t worry.”

Just then, Phineas joined them. “I thought you two agreed not to talk about me when I’m not around.”

Ferb raised his eyebrows. Phineas was one to talk; he and Vanessa had lunch together at least once a month.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Phineas said, laughing. “C’mon, it’s time for presents.”

He grabbed Ferb’s left hand and Isabella’s right and pulled them out to the living room. They settled on the floor next to the tree, where their friends were already waiting.

“Okay, who’s first this year?” Buford asked, already holding a stack of poorly wrapped gifts ready to be passed out.

Ferb raised his hand, and promptly had a gift chucked at his head.

Their system for gift opening was relatively simple – everyone opened gifts from one person at a time, rotating around the circle. The order for opening gifts and for presenting them was the same, but reversed – so this year Ferb opened his gifts first every time around, but would give his out last. This plan was at its most amusing the year that Phineas and Ferb gave Isabella one hand-knitted sock and mitten each, as they were nearly opposite each other in the opening order.

“Oh, look, a _complete_ set of mittens,” Isabella said pointedly. Clearly she’d been on the same line of thought as Ferb.

Ferb snickered, and Phineas flushed faintly pink. In their defense, they’d been short on money – having splurged on an expensive gift for Candace – and Isabella was notoriously difficult to shop for.

This was made all the worse by the fact that she was by far the best of them at _buying_ presents, as evidenced by this year’s haul.

“Now, Baljeet, I know you’re not a huge fan of t-shirts, but I saw this and thought of you, so I hope you like it,” she said.

Baljeet held up his gift: a t-shirt with a working calculator integrated into the graphic on the front. He laughed, “Isabella, this is excellent!”

Isabella grinned smugly. Every one of her gifts so far – a new hat for Ferb that didn’t clash with his hair, a box of building themed Christmas cookies for Phineas, and an animal themed bowling ball bag for Irving (who was only present by skype and UPS, as his family travelled for the holidays) – had been a hit.

And for Buford, she’d gotten –

“Finding Dory on Blu-ray,” he announced, smiling in spite of himself. “Thanks, Iz.”

Phineas lit up. “Ooh, can we watch it?”

The others laughed. “Maybe later, Phin.”

\--

Ferb had a Plan. Phineas didn’t know what it was yet, which was unusual, but he was very, _very_ excited.

He was pretty sure that Ferb had been working on the Plan since, like, October, which meant that it was sure to be something really stunning.

Four days after the New Year, Phineas was woken by Ferb throwing a granola bar and a pile of clothes at his head.

“Big Idea day, is it?” he tried to ask, but all that came out was, “Mrrrrph.”

Ferb snorted. “Stunningly articulate as always.” He threw one more item of clothing at Phineas. “Get up, we’ve got a big day ahead of us.”

And so they did. It turned out that Ferb had woken him before the sun had fully risen, and they stayed out in the back yard until dark, only taking breaks for lunch and to warm their hands. Their friends joined them around midday, and stuck around until the project was finished.

By the end of the day, they’d turned the backyard into an elaborate snow fort that didn’t even disappear when they were done. They spent a few more days playing in the fort, almost like when they were kids (only now their tunnels had to be bigger).

Before long, though, it was time for Ferb to go back to school. (And then Buford and Baljeet, then _eventually_ Phineas and Isabella.)

The evening before Ferb left, they had a movie night which involved very little actual successful movie watching, as they talked over everything and stopped halfway through to get frozen yogurt.

“Don’t worry,” he told Phineas the next morning, “summer will be here before you know it.”

(It will not, but no one needs to acknowledge that.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun facts about this chapter: I am a real film student, and I am having way too much fun thinking of things for Buford to talk about. Also, my winter break really is six weeks long, and the last two weeks are hellish because everybody's gone and nobody's back yet.
> 
> I hope everybody's doing alright after the finale :)   
> Keep an eye out for more of this story, this is how I'm channelling my sadness.


	4. somewhere different

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I should apologise for how ridiculously sporadic my updates on this fic are. Sometimes I get SUPER EXCITED ABOUT IT and then other times I get distracted and write six other things instead. Oops.  
> I'd promise to be better about it, but that would be a terrible lie, because I have the attention span of a gerbil.

“ – And for the final, I’m gonna build a ukulele!”

Ferb laughed.

“Yeah, I know, right?” said Phineas, grinning. “The coolest!”

Ferb tipped his head to one side, raising his eyebrows.

“Sure I do,” Phineas replied. He waved a hand dismissively. “Well, okay, fine. You caught me. But I already play guitar, how hard can it be to learn?”

_“Why not just build a guitar?”_ Ferb asked, frowning.

Phineas rolled his eyes. “Bro. _Bro_. I already _have_ a guitar. I want to do something new!”

“ _I suppose that’s respectable_ ,” said Ferb, chuckling.

Phineas’s phone beeped.

“Aw, I’ve got to go,” he said, flopping backwards onto his mattress. “I have class in half an hour, and it’s getting kinda late for you anyway.”

Ferb didn’t say anything.

Phineas propped himself up on his elbows. “Sorry, what was that?”

Ferb rolled his eyes, then shrugged.

“Yeah, I know. Time zones are, like, the _worst_.”

“ _Agreed,”_ said Ferb. “ _I’ll see you Saturday, though.”_

“Yeah. See you.”

Ferb waved and ended the video call.

Phineas let his head fall backward. He’d anticipated that the distance would be unpleasant, but this was ridiculous. There were hours between them, and they were on entirely different schedules. Sure, they’d spent all of Christmas break attached at the hip, but that didn’t change the fact that they were apart _now._

He really did have to go to class now, which was unfortunate. He was kind of feeling like wallowing in self-pity for a while.

That wasn’t his usual style, of course. But sometimes it was awfully tempting, like when his best friend was halfway across the world _all the time_.

On the upside, he was meeting up with Isabella after class. That was always nice.

Phineas sat up, stretching. He allowed himself a moment to shake off this itchy, upset feeling, then stood up and set off for ceramics.

\--

Buford liked making movies. He was excited about it, he was pretty good at it.

But dear god, the Moving Image classes were going to kill him. Eight hours a week with the same fifteen people, the vast majority of which was either spent outside in the cold or in an uncomfortable, tiny screening room. It was unpleasant and honestly he couldn’t wait until he was done with foundations and could take screenwriting and directing and such.

“Buford?”

He spun around, snapped out of his frozen musings, and promptly lost his balance and his feet slid out from under him. “Baljeet!”

When he looked up, his laughing friend was standing over him, a hand outstretched to help him up.  “Why are you out here? It’s twenty degrees!”

Buford let Baljeet pull him to his feet before answering. He gestured to his three teammates, who were about ten feet away and laughing at him. “We’re shooting a project.”

“That sounds… unpleasant,” Baljeet commented. He frowned, brushing snow off of Buford’s shoulder. “Are you not cold?”

“Oh, I’m freezing,” said Buford. “But we’re not allowed to shoot in the building, so we’re stuck out here. I want to think we’re almost done, but I’ve thought that for at least 45 minutes now.”

Baljeet chuckled. “Well I would stay to keep you company, but I have class in twenty minutes. Also, it is unreasonably cold. But now that I know that you are in the area, perhaps we could meet for lunch?”

“That’d be great, ‘Jeet.” Buford stuffed his hands into his pockets. “If I don’t freeze to death first, I’ll call ya when class is over.”

Baljeet laughed again. He pulled his hat off and shoved it onto Buford’s head. “Try not to freeze. And do not call, I may still be in class.”

“Text, then.”

“Right.”

They said their good-byes, and Buford turned his attention to his teammates.

“That’chr boyfriend, then?” one asked.

“Who, Baljeet?” Buford said, shaking his head. “Nah, we’re just friends. He’s dating a girl.”

“Sure,” said another. “Y’know, man, this is art school. Nobody’s gonna –“

“Aren’t we supposed to have this done by the end of class?” Buford interrupted.

His teammates shook their heads, but got back to work.

\--

“Physics make more sense than people,” Justin read. “Nice, uh, plaque.”

Ferb glanced at it where he’d perched it on his side table. He had only just put it out, after finding it buried between his sweaters. “Christmas present.”

“From who?”

“An old friend,” Ferb replied. “He one to my brother as well; he’s the one who coined the phrase.”

“Cool,” said Justin. “But I have to disagree with the message.”

“Yes, well, you’re studying sociology.”

Justin snorted, then walked away and settled in at his own desk.

Ferb returned his attention to the letter he was writing. He’d never exactly been one for talking, but something about letter writing appealed to him. Also, this was probably the longest, most effective conversation he’d ever had with Isabella, and he’d known her since they were toddlers.

(He and Isa had always gotten along well enough, but she’d been so enamoured with Phin when they were kids that she hadn’t often had the time to focus on a conversation with him. Ferb was alright with that, mostly; Phineas was awfully interesting, and Ferb didn’t talk much. Conversations with him were slow, and tended to involve a lot more visual cues than actual words. Somewhere in the intervening time, Isa had slowed down a bit and Ferb had sped up, and they’d found a balance. The letter writing suited them, but they _had_ managed to sit in comfortable silence making faces at each other for a full ten minutes over Christmas break.)

He glanced at the plaque, grinning.

\--

> _Do you remember, Bell, the day we built – rebuilt – a time machine? I have this vague memory from another day, of you dropping into our yard in that same machine. You gave us a tool, took a juice box and left. Do you remember doing that? I can’t think of a reason you would have, or a day it might’ve happened._

Isabella frowned, thinking back. She did sort of remember that, somewhere in the blur of that crazy summer. But she honestly couldn’t remember _why_.

> _I only mention it,_ Ferb’s letter continued, _because we’ve been discussing the theoretical potential for time travel in one of my classes._

“Pssh, theoretical,” Isabella said, rolling her eyes.

> _While I am ordinarily quite grateful for the anonymity that comes from attending a university so far from the site of our childhood adventures, being recognised certainly would have been helpful today. If you’ll believe me, even the classmates who think time travel is possible refused to believe that the technology already exists. I wish I’d taken some pictures with those dinosaurs._
> 
> _Ah, well. I’ve been looking for a reason to fiddle with those equations again anyway._

After that, he signed off. Isabella smiled; his customary _take care, my beloved future sister-in-law_ never failed to amuse her.

(Well, almost never; in high school it had been more of a barb than an endearment.)

“What’cha reading?” one of Isabella’s classmates, May, asked. May nudged Isabella when she didn’t respond right away.

“Oh,” Isabella replied absently. “A letter from my friend. He helped me earn my basic astrophysics patch back when I was a Fireside Girl. And others. _Lots_ of others.”

“Aw, cool,” said May. “I never got that one. Didn’t know any astrophysicists. He older, then?”

“He’s younger than me, actually,” Isabella said. She folded up the letter and tucked it into her bag. “Not by very much, though; we were in the same class at school.”

“O _kay_ ,” May said sceptically. “Do you think he could help me with my physics homework? Because magnetism is killing me, man.”

“Well, Ferb’s a bit far away,” Isabella said, “but _I_ could help you.”

“Isa, you’re a lifesaver,” said May. She draped one arm across Isabella’s shoulders. “Are you free after lit? I’m _dying_.”

Isabella chuckled. “Yeah, I think I can swing that. But only if Doc doesn’t miss the end of class again; I’ve got dinner plans.”

“I will do everything in my power to keep him on track,” May said solemnly, but she ruined the effect a bit by bursting into giggles afterwards.

\--

Phineas had lunch with Vanessa twice a month. They were both close enough to home to meet in Danville, at various restaurants and coffee shops (not that Phineas drank coffee, of course).

They talked about all sorts of things including, but not limited to: world domination, ukulele tuning, appropriate (and inappropriate) use of tap shoes, that one time that Ferb spontaneously demolecularized a fire hydrant (probably, but not definitely, on purpose), and that one guy in Phin’s physics class who was making a piccolo for the final.

“I mean, like, I really want to feel weird about it,” Phineas said. “Like, who even _plays_ the piccolo, right? But then I remember – _Buford_ plays the piccolo.”

Vanessa chuckled. “Well that’s what happens when you use up all of your weird quota as a ten-year-old.”

Phineas flopped dramatically backwards, draping himself over the back of his chair. “I _know_. Like, nothing is ever going to surprise me again.”

“I don’t know about _nothing_ ,” replied Vanessa. She pointed at him with her fork. “From what I’ve heard, your friends pulled a pretty big one on you the day Iz left.”

Phineas sat up, his eyes wide and his cheeks pink. “I stand corrected.” He paused, grimacing. “I’m never going to live that one down, am I?”

Vanessa shook her head, laughing. “Never. It could be worse, though; remember how Ferb and I got together?”

“You’re right, that _was_ worse,” Phineas agreed, grinning. “Though, to be fair, I _have_ pulled similar stunts in non-romantic contexts –“

“I don’t doubt that for a minute.”

“- but I do think that was a record for us, property damage-wise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have three things to say about this chapter:   
> 1\. Baljeet's campus and Buford's overlap, but they're not at the same school.  
> 2\. Buford's assignment is a real thing that I had to do, it was terrible.  
> 3\. Phineas's final is ALSO a real thing I had to do once, and it was awesome. When I get to the end of their school year, I'll include a picture. That said, nobody in my class made a piccolo. My friend built a harp, though!


	5. that just makes me a dumb human

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY GUYS. I KNOW HOW THE STUFF OF LEGEND ENDS NOW.  
> I wanted to take a step out of Phineas for this chapter, and I think I did a pretty good job with that.   
> Another interesting fact about this chapter: it has a record TWO scenes that I had to clear with my - uh, scene-checker people. The official TSoL gaydar, shall we say. You'll see why.

A paper airplane collided with Isabella’s head.

This was strange, because Isabella was alone in her dorm room.

The plane had _OPEN ME_ written in blocky purple glitter gel pen on the wings. Isabella shrugged and unfolded it. Who was she to argue with an apparently magical paper plane?

_Bella, Bella, ma belle: (_ the note began)

_My university is hosting a talk about women in engineering this Saturday. I know that it isn’t your area of study, but the woman who’s coming to speak is a former scout, of a similar background to yours. I thought you might be interested._

_I’ve already responded to the event +1, which I do hope you won’t find presumptuous. If you aren’t free or are unwilling to make the trek, that’s all right. But I do hope you consider it._

_The talk is at 2pm your time, but if you teleport over earlier in the day I’d love to show you around the campus._

_I’ll leave the transporter open for a few minutes after I send this; to reply, just send another plane roughly in the direction this came from._

_Hoping to see you soon,_

_FF_

 

Of _course_ it was from Ferb. Phineas saw her this morning, Baljeet didn’t have the practical know-how to build a transporter, and Buford didn’t like writing letters. She grabbed a scrap of paper from her sorter and scribbled a quick reply.

 

_Fletch:_

_Sounds like fun. I’ll hop over around 3 local._

_Thanks for thinking of me._

_Igs_

\--

 

The front door crashed open. “I swear to god, if I have to spend one more minute with that asshole I’m going to revert to my old ways.”

Baljeet, who was sitting on his couch and grading homework (and marvelling at how bad at math some of his physics students were), didn’t even look up. “Close the door behind you, Buford, you’ll let in a draft.”

“You’re my best friend, ‘Jeet, you’re supposed to be sympathetic to my plight,” Buford complained, flopping onto the other end of the couch.

“You are thinking of a _regular_ friend,” replied Baljeet, still without looking up, “or perhaps a boyfriend. But as your _best_ friend, I am quite certain that it is my duty to ignore your plight for as long as I can manage it.”

Buford retaliated by putting his socked feet between Baljeet’s face and the papers he was reading. “You’re the worst.”

“I can accept that. You do have several years of worst-ness on me, I may as well try to catch up,” said Baljeet. He set the papers down and shot a mischievous grin at his friend.

“Dude.”

“You are more than welcome to stay here for the night, as always,” Baljeet said, shoving Buford’s feet away. “A murder charge would put something of a damper on our friendship.”

\--

“Hey, Fletch!” Isabella greeted, tapping on his door. “You home?”

The door opened. The boy at the door had chestnut brown hair and light blue eyes – in short, the boy was not Ferb. “Ferb’s in the shower,” he said when Isabella voiced this thought. “He’ll be out in a minute. I’m Justin, his roommate.”

“Cool,” Isabella replied. “I’m Isabella, I grew up with him.”

“Oh, yeah, he said something about that,” said Justin. “The girl scout, right?”

“Fireside girl, actually,” Isabella corrected a little coldly. “It’s just – there’s a bit of a feud, you know?”

Justin laughed. “I did _not_. Should I have?”

“I’ll give you a pass for not being American,” said Isabella, grinning. “But just for future reference, by calling a Fireside Girl a Girl Scout, you invoke a blood feud that goes back four generations.”

Justin spluttered.

Ferb, who had just stepped out of the bathroom, paused in the act of drying his hair to shoot Isabella a Look. She gave him a sweet, mostly innocent smile.

Ferb rolled his eyes.

_\--_

“I’m two hundred percent sure that that is not possible in real life.”

“Two hundred percent is not a mathematical possibility.”

Popcorn was tossed. “D’you always have to be such a fuckin’ nerd?”

“Why yes, yes I do. I am fairly certain that it is in my job description.”

“That’s – okay, you’ve got me. But you’ve got to admit, I’m right. That wouldn’t work.”

“I imagine given enough time in the Flynn-Fletcher back yard –“

Buford elbowed Baljeet. “Yes, yes, I get it. Phineas and Ferb projects _don’t count._ ”

“Right, of course,” replied Baljeet. He flopped over a bit, sliding sideways down the back of a couch a little. “The Miracle Worker Exception. I apologise.”

“Yeah, well, don’t break the rules again, ‘kay?” Buford said, giving his friend the briefest of glances. “It’s no fun to play the that-isn’t-realistic game if you do.”

They were resting more or less against each other, comfortable and a little sleepy, while they watched the latest Bond film. Baljeet was starting to drift off, blinking slowly and yawning occasionally.

“Hey, it’s getting late,” Buford said softly after a while. He glanced at the clock. “Ah, it’s already late, actually. Baljeet?”

Baljeet, who at this point had apparently actually fallen asleep, did not respond.

Buford paused the movie, careful not to jostle Baljeet and wake him. Unfortunately – somewhat unfortunately, at least – while he could reach the remote to pause the movie and turn the TV off, any further movement would _definitely_ wake his friend.

_Ah, well,_ he thought, _the company could be worse._

_\--_

“ – and it was _amazing,_ Ness! She talked all about how scouting sparked her interest in engineering and science, and how it feels to be a woman in a field like that,” Isabella gushed. She tapped her fingers on the table, barely containing her excitement. “And _then_. Oh my gosh. So, when she was done with her talk, Ferb goes ‘we should go say hello’ – well, you know, he _Ferbed_ but that’s what he meant. And she knew who I was!”

Vanessa leaned forward, setting down her coffee cup and giving Isabella an amused smile. “Doesn’t surprise me. You were kind of a rock star in the scouting community, from what I understand.”

Isabella went faintly pink. “I – you think so?”

“Iz, you set an international patch record in seventh grade,” replied Vanessa. “I didn’t even know you _distantly_ then and I heard about it.”

“I – yes, I suppose you’re right, that did happen,” Isabella said haltingly, still blushing.

“Don’t sell yourself short, okay, Iz?” Vanessa said. She took a sip of her coffee. “You’re pretty cool, and you’ve done a lot of awesome stuff.” She smirked, her mouth mostly hidden behind her cup. “And if there’s one thing our family is good at, it’s awesome stuff.”

Isabella grinned. She and Vanessa hadn’t known each other personally long, but they were sisters in weirdness and in occasional normalness and also (hopefully some day) in law. “You bet’chr ass we are.”

\--

“Yo, ‘Jeet, do you have a –“ Phineas froze in Baljeet’s apartment doorway, eyes narrowed. “Am I interrupting something?”

Buford and Baljeet were tangled up on the couch, which really wasn’t big enough for the both of them. Buford was awake; Baljeet was still dozing. “Whaddya want, Phin?”

“I – I forgot,” Phineas stammered. He was lying, of course, but he _really_ wanted to know what was going on. Buford and Baljeet had never been so overtly – well, anything. He waved in a vague circle. “That comfortable?”

Buford shrugged, careful not to dislodge Baljeet. “Seemed like a good idea at the time. He’s heavier than he looks.”

“Dude, _I_ can carry Baljeet. And his room’s, like, ten feet away,” Phineas pointed out.

“Shut up, man,” said Buford. “Why are you here?”

“I’ll come back later,” Phineas said. He gave his friend a sarcastic thumbs up. “You kids have fun.”

Buford half-heartedly threw a sweatshirt – the only thing he could reach without waking Baljeet – in the direction of his friend, who sidestepped it easily.

“Later days,” Phineas said cheerily, clearly supressing a laugh.

As he shut the door behind him, initialising his teleporter, he was pretty sure he heard Baljeet’s sleepy voice say, “Did I hear someone talking?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Buford replied.

This was followed by the dull, muffled _flump_ that probably indicated Baljeet’s head dropping back onto Buford’s chest. Phineas shook his head, grinning, and disappeared.


	6. dive on in and trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I go to art school.  
> It wasn't until I started to write this chapter that it occurred to me that I have _no_ idea what finals are like at normal school. SO! SPECIAL THANKS TO GEORGE, SAM, JOSIE AND THE GANG FOR YOUR TERRIFYING COLLEGE STORIES. HOW DID YOU SURVIVE.  
>  The second half of this chapter has nothing to do with finals, but I _am_ pretty proud of it as payoff to some (occasionally not-so-subtle) build-up from earlier on.  
>  One more chapter after this, guys. Thanks for stickin' around.  
> Enjoy!

It was May.

This meant a lot of things, but mostly it meant finals.

Buford did his last shoot at the end of April, and finished about ten minutes before his teammates pushed him to his limit.

(They’d spent the last month alternately planning things behind his back and not showing up for things. He was 100% ready to be done with them.)

The project was due Tuesday, and today was Thursday, and he was sitting in a dark room staring at his computer for the third hour straight. Editing was cool, but it would be even cooler if the school would invest in some light bulbs.

And maybe turned down the A/C.

Honestly, he got that the computers needed to be kept cool, but this was a bit silly. It was _May_ and easily 75 degrees out and here he was, sitting in the edit room wearing three sweaters. He was pretty sure one of them wasn’t even his.

At the end of his editing session, he checked the clock. There were still two hours before his next class, so he found a nice table on the 5th floor to curl up under and take a nap.

\--

Time was meaningless.

Phineas wasn’t sure if it had been four days or two hours since he last saw Isabella, and he honestly couldn’t remember if it was two AM or two PM.

(His watch had been on 24-hour time since he was ten.)

He was in the theatre building, and he had _been_ in the theatre building for as long as he could reasonably remember. He slept in the costume room last night-morning.

His friend George was checking his paper for Physics (a report on the construction of his brand new left-handed ukulele) while he serenaded her with a song about not failing her film theory final. He’d actually written several songs on similar subjects since their troupe camped out here.

Phineas’s phone rang, suddenly and loudly. It startled him, and he jumped so badly that he almost kicked George.

 _EAT A SNACK!!!!!_ His phone told him.

“Right, yeah,” he mumbled. “Where did the granola bars go?”

From somewhere behind him, four granola bars came flying in their direction.

George ducked. Phineas did not.

“Ow!” He rubbed the back of his head. Then he picked up one of the snacks. “Thanks Sam.”

\--

Ferb thought he was handling finals quite well, until he was on the point of handing his engineering professor a ten-page paper on the lesbian subtext in _Wicked_ and realised that he must have given his poor modern lit TA his extra credit physics proof by mistake.

After bolting for Josie’s office and apologising profusely, trading papers, and running back to his engineering classroom to hand in his extra credit project, Ferb curled up in his bathtub and took a nap.

(His bed was covered in textbooks and tinkering, and he didn’t particularly fancy getting impaled in his sleep.)

His saving grace was that this was almost over; that at the end of this week, he would pack up his bags and go home to his girlfriend and his brother and his best friends on the planet and they’d have three and a half glorious months of sun and summer and big ideas.

All he had to do was survive this one last week.

Easy-peasy.

\--

It was midnight, and Isabella was eating waffles.

They were free, school-provided waffles, too!

She was wrapped in a blanket – a fleecy double-layered one that she’d made with her fireside girls troop when she was 14 – and sock-footed, sleep deprived, but happy.

Finals were _over._ Well, basically over.

She had one last paper to hand in, but the class tomorrow morning was going to be a party.

And then she was going to pile all of her things into the back of her car, and all of Phineas’s into the backseats, and they were going to drive home and not think about school for at _least_ two months.

But for right now, waffles.

\--

Baljeet wished that he didn’t have to grade finals.

It would be worth _not giving finals_ if it meant not grading them.

He’d never particularly minded taking tests. In fact, he’d rather enjoyed taking tests.

But this was really, really unpleasant.

Really, really, super unpleasant.

Everybody else was already finished with their finals, on their ways home. Well, everybody but Buford, who was dutifully waiting in Baljeet’s living room for him to finish entering grades.

“Dude. C’mon.”

“I am almost finished,” replied Baljeet, waving at him without looking up. “Be patient.”

Buford flopped onto the couch next to him. “I’m being patient. You’re just takin’ forever, man. I wanna see what Phin and Ferb are gonna roll out this year.”

Baljeet, _finally_ finished with his grade entering, closed his laptop as slowly as he possibly could. “Finished.”

Buford jumped up and pulled Baljeet up by the arm. “Let’s go!”

Baljeet laughed, dragging his feet just for the sake of being contrary.

Buford, annoyed, just picked him up and walked out the door.

\--

It was the end of May, Buford’s birthday.

It was also the first time that all five of them had been together in one place since the new year.

Buford was pretty excited. He saw Baljeet around a lot, sure, but they were just two of five. He liked Baljeet an awful lot - an awful, awful lot - but there was something amazing, electric, when all of them were together.

Phineas and Ferb were already there, because – once they’d gotten over their _home together here together home_ frenzy – they’d set everything up. Today wasn’t going to be anything big or crazy, just the five of them in the van Stomm living room, but it seemed like Phineas and Ferb had spared no streamer or balloon in Danville.

Isabella and Baljeet arrived together, carefully wrapped presents tucked under their arms.

“Happy birthday, Buford,” Isabella greeted, popping up on tiptoe to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Baljeet imitated her, apparently without thinking.

Then he froze.

And Buford froze.

And they stared at each other.

Buford’s mouth was half open, which he was sure gave him the look of a shocked goldfish, but he was too stunned to close it. He was sure - Sure - that Baljeet hadn’t been thinking, rare an occurrence as that was.

Because if Baljeet had been thinking, he wouldn’t have kissed Buford, not even on the cheek.

He wouldn’t have dared.

That crossed their invisible, unspoken boundary. Baljeet had a girlfriend, and they were better off as friends. Safer as friends.

But they’d been dancing around each other for an awfully long time. Long enough that one false step could -

Well, it could be a stumbling mess.

It felt like a long time before anyone moved or said anything. Maybe it really was a long time, if Phineas’s tone was any indication. "So that's what not talking looks like, right?”

Ferb elbowed him. Isabella stepped on his foot.

Buford stared. Baljeet spluttered.

“Seriously, guys, this is getting ridiculous,” Phineas continued, visibly frustrated. Isabella squeezed her eyes shut tight, clearly suppressing something, and Ferb took Phineas by the hand and led him to the living room. In true Ferb style, he left the ‘Let’s leave them alone to talk,’ unspoken, but everyone heard it anyway.

\--

“It was a gut reaction,” Phineas said in a low voice, watching his friends through the open doorway. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Buford had gone really pale and Baljeet’s cheeks were faintly pink. “I don’t – I didn’t mean to –“

Ferb put his hand on Phineas’s, stilling fingers he hadn’t even realised were drumming against the arm of the couch. “They’ll be alright, Phineas.”

Isabella was gnawing on her bottom lip. “They’ve been avoiding this pretty seriously for a long time.”

“Isa,” Ferb said firmly. “They will be _fine_.”

Phineas leaned on his brother, taking a slow breath. Ferb had a way of making people _believe_ things, maybe because even now he wasn’t much of a talker. Everything he said was carefully thought out, and said with such conviction that you were left certain that it _must_ be true.

Buford and Baljeet had been friends – best friends - for almost a decade. Of course they’d be alright, no matter what they were talking about now that was making Buford look like he was going to faint.

Phineas tore his eyes away from their friends, instead focusing intently on the gift in Isabella’s hands. “I can put that on the stack for you.”

“Huh?” replied Isabella. She followed Phineas’s gaze. “Oh, yeah. Thanks.” She held the box out.

He stood up, took the gift, and crossed the room to put it onto the table with the ones from himself and Ferb. He didn’t turn around right away.

He bounced on the balls of his feet a few times. Their friends could do anything – they’d built skyscrapers, gone to the far reaches of space, survived high school – sorting out a couple of _feelings_ would be no problem.

Phineas spun on his heel, just in time to see Baljeet touch his forehead to Buford’s, then step back. By the time Phineas had rejoined Ferb on the couch, Baljeet was in the doorway.

(Buford was still in the front hall, blinking in a sort of stunned fish way.)

Isabella jumped up. “Who wants cake? Buford! Let’s go get you your cake!”

\--

The cake was good. Really, really good – chocolate with chocolate frosting, and trick candles.

Baljeet could tell that Ferb, Phineas, and Isabella were treading lightly, uncertain of where what had just happened would leave him and Buford. In truth, he felt lighter.

He thought, from the content half-smile on his face, that Buford did, too.

Honestly, there was probably no better way for him to end this year. School was finished, and the summer was about to start, and for the first time in six years, he was looking at his best friend without the uncomfortable weight of things they Weren’t Talking About hanging over his head.

This didn’t change anything, really. Their relationship would be the same as it always had been. But the air between them was clear.

They knew where they stood.

(And maybe someday, someday, someday, something would change.)

Over the second – third? – slice of cake, Phineas’s head snapped up, a familiar grin on his face. “Guys. Hey guys. I know what we’re gonna do tomorrow.”


	7. home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, last chapter!  
> I'm honestly kind of sad to finish this; it's been a joy to write. I love Phineas and Ferb a lot, and I love this story, and all of you, too!  
> Also, in an unexpected bout of symmetry, I wrote the christmas chapter in June and have now finished a chapter set in July the week before Christmas.   
> Enjoy the chapter, and thanks for comin' along.

It was, arguably, the first summer of the rest of their lives.

That sounds like a really dumb thing to say, but it was. They’d finished their first year of college, they were all eighteenish and grown-up-looking, and busy.

Isabella had her summer job at the restaurant. Buford was working on a short film, just for “funsies.” Baljeet was a coach at a local mathletics camp. Phineas and Ferb had double “internships” with a special effects company and Stark Tech.

But none of that stopped them from making time for each other.

“We should build something,” Phineas said, but didn’t move from his comfortable sprawl on a pool floaty apart from continuing to drift vaguely across the Garcia-Shapiros’ pool.

“Tomorrow,” Buford replied. He and Baljeet were perched on the edge of the pool, their legs in the water almost to the knee. “S’the first day we’ve all had in ages.”

Ferb shot him a look. Part of that was Buford’s fault, after all; he was the one with the most flexible schedule. Then he ducked back underwater and swam over toward his brother’s float. As powerfully and quickly as possible, he burst above water again, thoroughly startling Phineas.

Phineas tumbled off of his floaty. “Bro. Bro, why.”

Ferb snickered.

Isabella kicked the back door open, a towel over her shoulder and carrying a plate with five cupcakes on it. “No splashing, I’ve got food.”

“Aw, Bell, you didn’t have to,” said Phineas, kicking over toward her. She sat down cross-legged just a little further from the edge of the pool than Buford and Baljeet were and set the plate between them.

“It’s your birthday,” Isabella pointed out, “of course I had to. And anyway, my mom made these for us.”

“THANKS MRS GARCIA-SHAPIRO!” yelled Phineas.

Isabella laughed. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate that, but she’ll appreciate it more if you and Ferb get out of the water and actually eat your goddamn cupcakes.”

“Eating our goddamn cupcakes, ma’am,” Ferb said with a sarcastic salute, hoisting himself out of the pool and reaching for a towel. Isabella jabbed at his side playfully.

“Happy birthday, Phin,” Buford said around a mouthful of cupcake.

Phineas laughed, reaching for his own treat. “You know, as much as I love getting together with the whole town – I’m excited for the party later, don’t get me wrong – this is all I really need.”

“All of Danville getting together in your honour is nothing to sneeze at,” Ferb said.

“Oh, undeniably,” agreed Baljeet.

Buford shoved at Baljeet’s shoulder. “The man’s clearly trying to be sentimental, quit givin’ him a hard time.”

“Of course we’re giving him a hard time, he’s trying to be sentimental,” replied Ferb.

Phineas rolled his eyes. Really, he wouldn’t have things any other way. “I love you guys.”

Isabella reached forward and put her hand on his knee. “We love you, too, Phineas.”

“Lord knows we wouldn’t have put up with all the crazy stuff you get up to if we didn’t,” added Buford.

Baljeet leaned on Buford, reaching over to wipe a bit of frosting off of his cheek almost unconsciously as he said to Phineas, “We are a team.”

“The best team in the world,” agreed Ferb. He threw an arm around his brother’s shoulders.

Phineas put one hand on top of Isabella’s and tipped his head to one side so that the top of his head touched Ferb’s temple. “Don’t I know it.”

For that moment, it felt like the whole world was in Isabella Garcia-Shapiro’s back yard. It didn’t matter that a month and a half from now they’d be back in school, separated by miles – _oceans_. It didn’t matter that their lives were taking them in vastly different directions. It didn’t matter that summer was fleeting and college was exhausting and they were growing up.

They were together, and they always would be.

Phineas grinned. “Not just the best, though –“

They were, after all, Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, Baljeet, and Buford: doers of the impossible, improbable, and just plain unlikely.

“- the stuff of legend.”


End file.
